svetikya Page 40
Page 40
"Huh? A request...?"
"Yes! When we grow up... come and save the world with me!"
"—But before that, you'd better make sure you're healthy, okay?"
"It's rare to see you reminiscing about your childhood. Are you feeling resentful about your inevitable death?"
"Haha. You're really joking, aren't you? The Void Treasury. Didn't I just tell Theresa and the others that?"
"I am 'willing to die,' and 'willing to die.' This is nothing more than a final, overdue celebration, five hundred years too late."
Void Archives, being a key to the divine, could not understand Otto's thoughts at this moment, and he debated with Otto in a voice similar to Otto's.
"...In my opinion, you are just using this method to cover up your nervousness and fear."
"Perhaps. I do get nervous and scared sometimes—after all, my life is long enough; seeing the finish line makes one feel excited."
"...Didn't you ever expect more?"
“Why not? If it’s just ‘hope’,” Otto said, still looking nonchalant. “But you must also understand, the void holds all things—the truly impossible are those that were destined to be impossible from the very beginning.”
In the void, Otto and the Void Treasury walked together, reminiscing about Otto's life.
From childhood to adulthood, from working together with Karen to save the world to their complete break.
They walked until that moment, a moment Otto would never forget.
There is no lie in this statement.
Chapter 78 The Ultimate Collection of Dregs
On the eve of the finish line, Otto and Void Archives once again saw the young Otto take the "shovel" handed to him by his sister and dig a grave for himself.
“You know what, Otto… I’m sometimes really jealous of your sister.”
"I meticulously set so many traps for you back then, big and small, and you never fell into them—"
"—But all she did was hand you a shovel, how could you dig your own grave?"
"...It is said that human emotions can make people lose their rationality; but what you did was indeed a bit unbelievable."
Otto responded without hesitation:
"Try to put yourself in her shoes a little, you're a mysterious being. Besides closing my eyes and believing her... what other choice did I have back then?"
"Or, if you were willing to let me use the full power of the Divine Key at that time—in order to save her, I think you would agree to any other conditions on the spot, right?"
"Tsk. So it's all my fault? That's the real reason you've bound me for over five hundred years?"
"Heh...who knows?"
After all, as a Divine Key created to save human civilization and fight against the Honkai, its underlying logic is to fight against the Honkai.
Finally, they stopped in front of a tombstone; it was Karen's grave.
"Oh, she died. That was indeed the end of you."
"Five hundred years have passed in the blink of an eye... Now, you finally have the chance to change this moment."
“Yes…she’s dead,” Otto said quietly, standing before the grave.
"...Huh? Hey, are you even listening to me?"
Otto did not answer him, and continued talking to himself:
"In many languages, people avoid mentioning the word 'death' itself."
"Death. The permanent dissipation of subjective will. The concept that renders 'existence' itself 'non-existent.' This is indeed the eternal terror before all wisdom—"
"But when we try to defuse this terror by becoming blind in the face of death... a blatant form of self-deception is born."
"We always subconsciously believe that our loved ones are immortal and eternal."
"Although our reason tells us that the other person is also made of flesh and blood, our emotions simply cannot accept that."
"...Some people pretend to be ignorant when they know the truth. But you, perhaps you should be called 'someone who knows the truth but deliberately pretends to be ignorant.'"
The Void Treasury attempts to understand Otto.
"This is what you don't understand... the vastness of space."
"So-called human emotions are originally a desire to release them, even if it means harming others or oneself."
"It's just that, generally speaking, 'good people' are ultimately better at using reason to control their emotions, while 'bad people' are more accustomed to letting their emotions dominate their reason."
"As for the so-called 'rational evildoers'... they have turned their lives into machines that only calculate self-interest, and they are not even worthy of being called 'human beings' anymore."
"...Really? I think you're exactly that kind of 'rational villain' right now."
"I'm not denying that I'm not worthy of being called a 'human being.' Rather, I'm well aware that I am the epitome of this kind of dross."
"Didn't I say that...human beings always have an emotional belief that our loved ones are immortal and eternal?"
"And I am just a fool who lets this emotion dominate his reason and constantly calculates the benefits for it."
The moment Otto uttered his last words.
A hero destined to stand on this final stage burst into the church.
"—Look, the first person to come and settle scores with me is already very close."
Chapter 79 The Truth of the Plan
"Welcome, my dear friend despite the age gap, the foremost S-rank Valkyrie of Destiny."
Otto held one hand behind his back and the other in front of him, exuding an air of composure at all times.
"—If it were an hour earlier, I would have greeted you like that, Durandal."
"..." Facing Otto's usual calm demeanor, Durandal remained silent for a moment before speaking, "Someone told me that in your upcoming plans, you might 'destroy the present and then choose the past anew.' What exactly does that mean?"
"Hmm. Judging from the quote you cited, it must have been Changguang who told you."
"It's alright. You have the right to know the truth about this."
Under Durandal's gaze, Otto spoke of his plan as if it were a casual conversation, stating it directly and frankly.
“I once asked Changguang to design several different schemes for reconstructing the world—but in short, the most expensive one was the most stable.”
"Highest cost...what exactly do you mean?"
"If I just give you the conclusion, you'll inevitably be confused, so let me take a moment to start from the beginning."
Rakshasa maintained a faint smile throughout, enjoying everything Otto did on the screen.
"The vast emptiness holds all things; in the future, you will become more like a human being."
Otto chuckled and looked at the Void Archives floating beside him, which was still a Divine Key.
"I think it looks more like you now."
"Hehehe~ Aren't I human too?"
"Changguang and I have explained to you from different perspectives before that in our world, the flow of time is irreversible."
"It's like a river in nature, rushing forward and never looking back. However, just as a river gets replenished by rain and melting snow—"
"If we are even bolder and raise the dimension of our thinking to the realm of the tree of imaginary numbers, then human time is nothing more than data recorded on a magnetic tape."
"The so-called 'history' is what has already been recorded on this tape, while the so-called 'future' is the unknown that will be presented on this tape..."
"And our 'present' is the only probe on this tape."
"The 'now' is special; it distinguishes between the known and the unknown, the possible and the impossible. It is the unique platform for survival possessed by every intelligent life form."
"So let's assume something—"
"If we hold on"
Given the unique nature of the "present" probe, what would happen if it were forcibly moved back to a tape belonging to the "past"?
"...Will our 'present' be grafted onto the 'past' of history?" Durandal guessed, based on Otto's hint.
However, simply becoming a Herrscher is not enough to complete his plan. Becoming a Herrscher is merely a prerequisite for him to access the Imaginary Tree.
"That's right. Just like those extraterrestrial intelligences you've dealt with—except they need to be grafted into other people's worlds, while we graft ourselves."
"Imagine—a catastrophe like the Second Honkai Impact could be wiped clean; and modern people like us, with our own experiences, would help humanity grow anew."
Although Otto's promises seemed perfectly reasonable and wonderful, Durandal knew that they were nothing more than the most superficial plan.
"...So what you call cost is the energy required for the act of 'grafting'."
"Yes. With the experience from that previous exploration experiment, you can easily understand my plan."
"To achieve the goal of 'grafting myself onto myself,' I need three conditions:"
"First, methods for exploring, contacting, and even reaching the tree of imaginary numbers;"
"Secondly, the equipment and energy to support the above operations, specifically the Second Divine Key 'Thousand Realms One Vehicle' and sufficient Honkai energy;"
"Third, the suitable spacetime coordinates for 'grafting,' that is, the stable region that can be locked using the 'beacon' of the Thousand Realms One Vehicle."
"Yiting definitely has information, but she just won't give it to us no matter what, tsk!"
Last time, information about Onfaros could be found on that group of Memory Ents, and they probably have information about Earth as well, since memories are everywhere.
But the group of people who remembered things in the Memory Court refused to speak no matter what.
She couldn't very well take it by force, after all, she considered herself a rather reasonable genius.
“Fools are unreliable too; the more you ask them for something, the less likely they are to give it to you.”
That fool named Hanabi clearly knows something, but she looks like the purest pleasure seeker. I bet even if Screw Gom invited her, she would give him false information for fun.
Or should I just ask Aha? Or maybe I should just forget about it.
"Is the Star Train the only option?"
It seems like it's a long way off. Is she destined to just gaze at a treasure trove that could help her break through the singularity of knowledge, unable to even approach it?!
Chapter 80 The Beginning of the Final Performance
"...What exactly are the methods to 'reach the Imaginary Tree' and the ways to obtain 'sufficient Honkai Energy'?"
"They all originate from the 'Will of Collapse,' Durandal."
"—What?" Yulandai's eyes widened immediately.
"That's right, the Will of Honkai. The source of the current Herrschers, the starting point of the current Honkai. It is enshrined in the name of God and has existed for five hundred years in the history of Schicksal."
"But the so-called 'gods' are not unattainable. As long as we walk the same path and look towards the same destination... humans can also make contact with gods, and even reach an 'agreement'."
"……protocol?"
"Frankly, I don't like the World Serpent's Stigmata Project. But now, Schicksal has missed its best opportunity to stop it. Going back to the beginning is also creating an opportunity for ourselves to reshape the world's situation."
"And He... also enjoyed watching such a time-bending 'drama.'"
"The Will of Honkai has lowered the 'Gate' of the Imaginary Tree for me; and I will become its agent in the human world in this matter."
Although his statement was somewhat ambiguous, they did not need to understand it at this time.
He is indeed the source of the current civilization's Laws, because those Laws were established by the "Will of Honkai".
The contingency plans left by the previous civilization are not yet ready to be revealed.
Durandal had no intention of listening to Otto's rambling explanations anymore; all she wanted to know now was the real price.
"To achieve the goals listed above—what exactly are you planning to pay for?"
""Now"."
Otto casually uttered the answer that Durandal had once thought of but refused to believe.
“I told Theresa before too—”
“I will erase these five hundred years of history from the ‘branches of time,’ and return the world to the state it was in when Karen Kaslana was still alive.”
"The price I paid was time flowing on the tree of imaginary numbers, or rather, 'the present' itself."
"...If you do this, then what will become of the 'now' before us, the real world at this very moment?" Durandal continued to press, determined to find out the whole truth today!